A longstanding Christian club at Snow College says a new policy aimed at faith-based groups discriminates against their campus activities and forced them to take down an off-campus homecoming display because it included a religious symbol.

SALT LAKE CITY — A longstanding Christian club at Snow College says a new policy aimed at faith-based groups discriminates against their campus activities and forced them to take down an off-campus homecoming display because it included a religious symbol.

Curious about what recourse they had, Solid Rock Christian Club president Kelsey Reed and vice president Daniel Spencer contacted the Alliance Defending Freedom, a "legal ministry" that advocates for religious liberties.

On Monday, the club filed a federal lawsuit in Salt Lake City, alleging Snow violated its constitutional rights.

"Colleges are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, not centers of censorship,” said Travis Barham, a Georgia-based attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom. The First Amendment, he said, allows like-minded students to gather and to express their ideas, including religious students and religious ideas.

“By refusing to treat faith-based student organizations the same as other student groups and by excluding religious speech from homecoming events, Snow College officials have ignored this basic principle."

But Snow President Scott Wyatt said the lawsuit surprised him because the college reversed its policy within the past couple of weeks.

"I don't know if Solid Rock ministries is aware of that," he said. "I thought we'd resolved all the issues."

Barham said Tuesday that's news to him and Kelsey and Spencer haven't heard anything from the school.

"It would be incumbent upon a university to communicate a policy change to the affected clubs not the other way around," he said.

Club members just want to get back to ministering to the campus and holding activities just like other clubs, Barham said. "They're hoping we can do that without going through a long drawn out legal process."

Wyatt said he hasn't had any conversations with Solid Rock members or their attorneys.

"I just feel like the whole thing is going to be resolved easily because our differences are so minor," he said.

Snow College, located in Ephraim about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, chartered Solid Rock as a campus club for the past eight years. During that time, the club regularly used campus buildings for Bible study meetings without paying the community rental rate, advertised using materials that the Student Life Office made available and obtained student fee funding.

But over the summer, college officials relegated the club to "affiliate" status, which precluded it from the benefits of "club" status. The decision also forced the club to remove a homecoming display on a storefront window due to its use of a religious symbol.

According to the lawsuit, an internal audit led Snow to demote any student organization that was deemed to be associated with a religious organization to affiliate status. In so doing, those groups became ineligible for funding from student fees and using campus facilities without charge.

Rock Solid is not part of a church but is affiliated with Tri-Grace Ministries, an evangelical Christian organization based in Ephraim.

Wyatt said "some audit or some communication to Snow College from Salt Lake," apparently based on the Utah Constitution, gave rise to the thought that the school can't give funding to religious clubs or allow them to use its space for free. The state Constitution prohibits public money or property from being appropriated for religious worship, exercise or instruction or for the support of any ecclesiastical establishment.

"As soon as I heard it, I said, 'No, I don't think that's right. These student clubs are paying student fees like everybody else and I believe this use of space is incidental. And that it's OK with both the United States and Utah constitutions and something we should encourage, so we reversed that position," he said.

Popular Comments

Religious groups are pressing the so-called "religious freedom"
agenda, and they may find the backlash to be surprising.

2:20 a.m. Oct. 24, 2012

Top comment

Ultrabob402

Cottonwood Heights, UT

Public displays of religion, religious symbols, religious dogma is in fact the
advertising of a commercial product. It is a desirable thing that we keep
commercial advertising out of the public square. It is a case of fair
application of the notion
More..

9:08 a.m. Oct. 24, 2012

Top comment

Cinci Man

FT MITCHELL, KY

It seems that Freedom of Speech advocates want a religious speech exclusion.
The term 'separation of church and state' is often touted and the
legal grounds for the exclusion, but the highest courts often are required to
read the law and
More..

Dennis Romboy is a reporter for Deseret News where for the past 20 years he has covered a variety of beats including state and local government, human services and the 2002 Olympics. He spent six years as a special more ..